8/16/11

One of the great passions of mine besides baking & cooking is exploring new or old cook shops. Going to places like chinatown in Boston is a weeks worth of day trips. Literally I could spend days there roaming about, learning about new gadgets, and exploring useful ways for old gadgets for the kitchen. The vast array of cook shops, hard to find spices, varieties of fish sauces, oversized cookware that you don't need but have to have anyway--that's my kind of field trip. Really cook shop hunting is a passion but has turned into a hobby once I fell in love with chinatown. New York city is another great place for finding new cook shops.
Here on cape cod we are limited to cook shops. Maybe two or three? There is one fabulous little cook shop in Brewster called The Cooks Shop. It's small but then again this is cape cod, so in actuality its big for cape cod. And its open year round. Many places on the cape shut down for the fall/winter. The Cook Shop is located in Brewster, MA along route 6A, has two floors of of everything kitchenalia. And thankfully a very knowledgeable staff with loads of patience for curious inquisitive cooks like me. They are also known for their own "clam ram". What's a clam ram? A nifty little device that helps you open clams safely.

It's a tiny little shop. Every nook and crannie of the shop is filled with something. The company Stonewall Kitchen has a grande presence here. Sauces, jams, jellies, spreads galore. This is the store to come to to see what new product Stonewall Kitchen has.

Really hard to find food items are most likely here.

Dry glazes? Have I ever heard that term? No. But that's the fun part of foodie based field trips. It makes you want to try them--experiment.

Props for photos? Oh yes, they have you covered on that one. I'm slowly starting to appreciate little tiny props for enhancing photos.

Those special flavored/scented waters for pastry. So glad they have them. I actually got a request for making a special french cake that needs orange blossom water.

Little mini stainless steel mixing bowls that you really have no use for but must have anyway because they are small and cute? Yes please!

Mortar & pestle in all sizes. I should have photographed the really big one. The one you could easily fit a baby into.

Ahhh bliss! Spatulas in every shape, size and color. Are you one of those people that just has to have a new spatula each time you visit Williams Sononma? Yeah me too.

Copper cookie cut outs. Haven't seen these in ages.

I was amazed at the amount of tea kettles they had. Pricey but impressive. I know there are people who love to collect tea kettles; this would be a good place for you.

There is two walls just dedicated to thermostats, thermometers. Had no idea there was so many needed for each and almost every cooking technique stage.

One might need this....perhaps?

For real latte aficionado's.

And yes, would you believe there is a section for cheese cutters, cheese knives, cheese cutting boards and surfaces. Amazing.

No idea what this is. Could be a measuring device for liquids inside a glass or cup?

But it has the word butter on there. So perhaps a device for grating butter or cheese? It was in the cheese cutting section.

Mini glass cake covers. I don't know what I love more, the mini cover or the fact that a mini cake would safely be inside. Cute!

Baby tip heaven.

Jumbo tip heaven.

Vanilla sugar, powder, extract heaven. :-)

Now this makes sense. Have to get it.

Hmmm. What would a chef do that would cause such hard to get out stains? Like that of an auto mechanic? Curious to know.

This one has me puzzled. I wonder how you use this? I'm certain you tie this around a large slab of loin/protein but I don't know if you need to then set the wire on fire. Any ideas? Anyone seen this before?

29 comments:

Oooh! I would have been in heaven. I'm pretty sure that the mini glass cake cover is a butter dish. I have one just like that. Unless it is bigger than mine, in which case, I guess you'd just need to make a tiny cake for it.

You should come on a day trip to Quincy - we have every kind of ethnic grocery store (so fun) from little lebanese places to HUGE Asian supermarkets/malls. Also a great variety of little hole in the wall immigrant owned restaurants that are quite fun. The Gypsy Kitchen is a cool store that has lots of spices, and cool wines and cheeses. A lot more going on than meets the eye here - just a suggestion for a nice day trip in MA.

The "cube butter" device is for measuring out amounts of butter. The slit in the middle is so you can see the end of the butter stick, you align it to whatever amount you want, then cut with the sharp end.

I love foodie fieldtrips! One could blog just about cooking stores and gadgets and leave the food totally out of it, there's that much to say and stare at.Looks like you found some goodies!my favorite place to wander the aisles in amazement in my neighborhood is the local asian grocery , Manila Oriental Market. They have so much weird and wonderful stuff!

I forgot about that place! I was staying in a townhouse at that end of the Cape for a while when I left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Sadly, I couldn't really take advantage of it under the circumstances - looking for a place to live, work, etc. at the time. They did have some cool stuff though, and wasn't there a chocolate shop next door? Mmmm ....

I WANT ALL OF THOSE THINGS.I LOVE foodie field trips! That tackle box of pastry tips got my heart racing, haha. There's an awesome cooking shop (fantes.com) in Philadelphia that I could spend weeks in... Their site is very overwhelming with a LOT of stuff available.

If you ever find out what the hell a "food loop" is, let me know. I'm curious. Love those copper cookie cutters, too!

I am so glad I stumbled upon your blog. My husband and I are traveling to Cape Cod at the end of the month...for the first time. Thank you so much for all the wonderful pictures. Also all the great suggestions for places to visit and eat. I am counting the days 'til we hit the road.

I absolutely loved that shop. I went there when on vacation and I couldn't resist buying a few things. I bought 6 stainless steel dipping cups and a bottle of coffee extract-kinda pricey but it was worth it! I will definitely go there again when I get married to get stuff for my house.

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com